Last-ever commercial Concorde flight arrives in New York

The last-ever commercial Concorde flight carrying fare-paying passengers arrived today in New York, bringing down the curtain on an era of supersonic trans-Atlantic travel for the rich and famous.

British Airways flight BA001, touched down at John F Kennedy International airport at 5:40pm (0740 AEST today), three hours and 20 minutes after leaving London's Heathrow airport.

The needle-nosed icon will return to London tomorrow with a passenger roster of invited VIPs.

Two similar show flights - packed with celebrities, BA staff and competition winners - will operate the same day on different routes with all three planes touching down at Heathrow around 4pm (0600 AEST Saturday).

Flight BA002, the return leg from New York, will be the final Concorde to land, marking the end for what is regarded as one of the greatest technological feats of the 20th century.

But not everyone will be teary-eyed as the airliner flies out of New York for the last time.

"The Concorde was like a daily insult to anybody living near the airport," said Allan Greene, president of Sane Aviation For Everyone (SAFE).

For the small but committed anti-Concorde citizens groups that emerged from the residential areas around John F Kennedy Airport in the 1970s, the last farewell will be cause for joyous celebration..

In the early days, the environmental opposition to Concorde in the United States was more focused on scuppering plans by US aviation companies to develop their own supersonic transport (SST) planes.

A public outcry prompted by nightmare scenarios of fleets of supersonic jets thundering over the United States day and night helped push Congress into killing funding for the SST program in 1971.

The anti-Concorde lobbyists initially enjoyed the support of several US government agencies which, with the cancellation of the domestic SST program, feared that Britain and France might corner what was then seen as a potentially lucrative market.

When in 1976 the then transport secretary William Coleman gave permission for three Concorde flights per day to New York and Washington DC, the New York Port Authority responded by unilaterally banning the plane from all its airports.

British Airways and Air France had to take the Port Authority to court before the first Concorde could eventually touch down in New York in October 1977.

A special grandstand has been erected at Heathrow for 1,000 plane buffs who won tickets in a lottery to watch the final touch-downs there tomorrow (early Saturday AEST).

The day would be one of "mixed emotions" said Lord Colin Marshall, chairman of BA, the only airline apart from Air France to fly the Concorde. Air France retired its planes at the end of May.

"Everyone has enormous pride in all that she has achieved but there is inevitable sadness that we have to move on and say farewell," Marshall said.

"Concorde's magic has attracted millions of loyal fans who enjoy her unique blend of speed, grace and beauty.

"The decision to retire Concorde was a tough one, but it is the right thing to do at the right time."

Concorde's demise was announced in April as BA and Air France simultaneously said that their fleets would be retired to museums due to the planes' increasing age and spiralling maintenance bills.

Developed in the 1960s by the French company Aerospatiale and the British Aircraft Corp, Concorde was a technological marvel of its day and a symbol of Anglo-French cooperation.

The fleet of 14 planes that entered service, with their classic Delta wing shape, manoeuvrable nose-cone and supersonic boom, drew huge crowds wherever they visited in the early years, notably an estimated 750,000 on the first trip to Toronto.

Soon the plane, which has a cruising speed of 2,150kph -- faster than a standard rifle bullet -- became a byword for luxury air travel.

But the dream died on July 25, 2000 when an Air France Concorde crashed after take-off from Paris's Charles-de-Gaulle airport, killing all 109 people on board and four on the ground.

Although the plane resumed commercial flights in November 2001 after modifications, the crash marked the beginning of the end.